Patterson is asteroid #2511 and also known as 1980 LM. Patterson measures 7.8 km in diameter. Patterson’s orbit is characterized by a semi-major axis of 2.30 Astronomical Units, an eccentricity of 0.10, a period of revolution of 1’275 days, and an inclination of 8.0 degrees. Patterson was discovered by Carolyn Jean Spellmann Shoemaker at the Palomar Observatory.

Patterson is named after the American geochemist Clair Cameron Patterson. He lived from 1922 until 1995 and was an expert for the element lead. He by examining the decay of uranium to lead within zircon crystals figured out that the Earth and the whole Solar System are 4.55 billion years old. Yet the Earth had already been believed to be 3.3 billion years old, so Clair Cameron Patterson can’t be made responsible for the triumph of the evolution theory. His age-dating of the Earth was so accurate that it never got seriously challenged. Clair Cameron Patterson also found that the Earth’s atmosphere previous to 1923 didn’t contain lead, yet after 1923 did so. He became an activist against environmental pollution and in particular advocated for a ban of lead in gasoline. The USA in 1986 prohibited lead-containing chemicals in gasoline, the lead content in the blood of American citizens dropped by eighty percent and so other countries followed this example.

The name Patterson obviously is patronymic and its meaning is either “Son of the Patriot” or “Son of the Short Curly-Headed”. So the name will rather be irrelevant for the astrological interpretation of asteroid #2511. Patterson presides over precise age-dating and over policies for protecting the atmosphere.